


Perfectly Normal

by MorganaNK



Category: Inspector Lynley - All Media Types, Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 10:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11987721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganaNK/pseuds/MorganaNK
Summary: Barbara and Tommy's relationship might seem strange to others...





	Perfectly Normal

**Author's Note:**

> Property of Elizabeth George and the BBC, no copyright infringement intended

How many bosses invite you to their room and then hold a conversation with you through the open bathroom door while they are naked in the shower? 

How many bosses secretly arrange and pay for your parents' house to be redecorated so that you can sell it?

How many bosses spend the night on your couch?

How many bosses invite you to their engagement party?

How many bosses invite you to stay with their family, and then tell you that you are part of that family?

None. Well none until I was partnered with Tommy Lynley.

When I look back over our years together it seems to me that we were always more than just colleagues. Right from the start we knew that we had something. Our partnership, it is different to any kind of relationship that I’ve had before; work or otherwise. We laugh, we fight, we talk, we cry, we banter, we argue, but most of all we never give up on each other.

He supported me when my parents were ill. I returned the favour when his wife lost their baby and then left him. He was there for me when I was shot and when I was held hostage. I gave him my strength and my friendship when he was suspended, when his wife was killed not long after they resumed their relationship, and again when he was arrested for murder.

We are close. We know everything there is to know about the other. We spend time together out of work because we enjoy being in each other’s company. Some people say that we are interdependent and perhaps we are, but the way we see it is that it’s nobody’s business but ours. To us it is perfectly normal.

…Our first case together was fraught to put it mildly, but we were both in a bad place when we were thrown together so to some extent it was understandable. Even so, I knew that there was something special about her, something that attracted me.

I felt relaxed in her company, comfortable, something that I hadn’t felt for a very long time. Perhaps my behaviour was a little wicked, but I played up those feelings to see how she would react. I would shower in front of her with the door to the bathroom wide open, or come into the room wearing just a towel and a smile. When she didn’t run away screaming or report me for harassment, I had my answer. 

The more time we spent with each other the closer we became. I lost interest in playing games with her emotions because I didn’t want to risk what we shared, it was too important to me, and instead I focussed on being her partner, her colleague and her friend.

The years haven’t been kind to either of us and we have both been through the mill far more than we deserve, but through it all we knew that we could rely on each other, and that the other would be there even when everyone else had deserted us. 

She’s become the centre of my world, the person that I value above all others, and I don’t think it would be big headed to say she feels the same. We are connected in a way that most people cannot begin to comprehend, but as long as we understand it, well that is all that matters. To us it is perfectly normal.


End file.
